United 94
by Lady Epur
Summary: I heard a guy behind me speaking in low tones. “Yes, we’ve got four men of Arabic descent, hijacking this plane.” He paused for a moment. “No, I don’t know where we’re heading.”
1. Prologue

**Okay, I'm going to attempt a 9/11 attack story. Only this takes place when Suze is 19. So that means Jesse is 23. Please don't flame if you don't think it's appropriate, but I really wanted to write this. Anyways... Here goes: (by the way, I don't own the series in which the characters are based off of, or really the background of the plot, either. Though this attack is more or less like United Flight 93 and the heroes who brought it off course.)**

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Jesse is taking me to New York City for our three-year anniversary. No, we're not married, much to my chagrin. We're still steady boyfriend/girlfriend, despite a few fights here and there. But that's normal.

Anyways, it was summer. NYC's gonna be a muggy place when we get there. But I can show him around. He's never been there before, and I can give him the _real_ NYC tour. Not those gay trolley tours or whatever they give. No, he'll see the NYC the residents know. The best vendor to get a 'dog, the best Chinese restaurant to go to(which is _not_ in Chinatown), and even where to get cheap Broadway tickets(which are, surprisingly, legitimate).

And I can even take him to Gina's. He's met her before of course... well, he's seen her, but she never saw him. I'll have to fix that, though. Because... well... who _wouldn't_ want to look at him?

I can tell Jesse's been saving up for this. He got us a hotel in Time's Square. Which I thought was incredibly stupid because those hotel rooms are like, $150-$200 a night, and they're about HALF the size of a standard hotel room. I mean, you sit on the toilet in a hotel room bathroom there and your knees touch the wall facing it!

I would have told him this had I know he was planning it. But no, he just came to pick me up for a date Friday night and told em we were going to New York tomorrow. I was thrilled and touched, of course, but he TOTALLY got gypped on the prices. I could've cut the expenses of the trip in half, practically, with a few well placed calls and well-written letters... But I just bit back my tongue and didn't say anything. Well... I didn't bite back my tongue... I sort of shoved it into Jesse's mouth and didn't speak because it was sort of physically impossible at the moment.

But then David, now sixteen, came out and broke us apart accidentally, of course. He was off on date(can you believe it?) with Shannon, his girlfriend of almost a year now.

He was totally embarrassed to catch us playing tonsil hockey at the door step, and was blushing and everything, his ears going REALLY red.

"Uh... sorry, Suze. I, uh... didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, David," I said, "Jesse would've pulled back a few moments later, I'm pretty sure."

Jesse, instead of taking umbrage at this, nodded. "You're quite right Susannah. It's not proper before marriage."

I rolled my eyes. I could hear a lecture coming...

"I let it get too far anyways." Jesse looked sort of ashamed. It kinda made me feel bad that I was not helping at all to try and keep our physical contact modest. But I was also glad that there wasn't a lecture.

David was still standing there.

"Well, I suppose you ought to know that I've already asked Susannah to accompany me to New York," said Jesse to David.

He smiled and nodded. "You two have fun." He winked. Eek! He actually winked!

David got into the kid's car, it was pretty much his now since I had my own car, but Dopey still didn't have one yet... he used it sometimes, but usually took a ride with one of his college friends if he needed to get somewhere. Talk about a leech!

"Wait a minute... did EVERYONE else but me know about this?"

Jesse feigned innocence. "Whatever do you mean Susannah?"

I just laughed. "Come on, let's go to the beach."

We spent a nice few hours there, making out sporadically, and getting soaked from the waves.

Jesse brought me home pretty early for a date night, and told me I ought to pack and get some sleep, and that our plane was leaving at eight the next morning.

So here I was, sitting in a chair at the airport next to Jesse, waiting for our plane to arrive. Jesse was reading some new medical text and I was sitting there bored out of my mind. I could tell this plane ride was gonna be boring.

The plane arrived on time, Flight United 94. Jesse and I boarded the plane, along with about twenty other people. There weren't many people taking a flight to New York at eight in the morning, it seemed like. Not today, anyways.

Jesse and I took our seats, I had the window seat, Jesse had insisted. While we waited for the plane to take off, I noticed how stiff Jesse was. I took his hand and smiled encouragingly to him. He smiled back at me warmly, still a bit stiff.

It took FOREVER for the plane to take off. The plane scheduled to fly before us had a problem with its engine or something so we didn't even take off until an hour later. But after that, we took off smoothly. It was totally ideal flying conditions. I looked out the window and smiled at the clouds whizzing past us.

About ten minutes later, Jesse excused himself to use the bathroom. He squeezed my hand tightly, giving me a peck on the lips before going. He's so sweet, isn't he?

I could tell he was uneasy. He grew up in a time when there weren't even automobiles! I couldn't blame him that he was a bit nervous to be flying in a plane. Then again, I'm sure he knows the entire inner working of this contraption, as well how much fuel it takes and how much it burns in a minute.

He soaks up too much information, I tell you. If I could get him some romance novels to read, I'd be all set. Not that he isn't romantic already. But any guy could use some touching up on that subject, I think.

He walked up the aisle towards the bathroom, which was near the cockpit. I kept on watching the clouds.

"Hey."

I turned to see a girl about twelve years old sitting next to me. At first I thought she was dead, but she hadn't an aura. No, she boarded the plane with her mother.

"Um, hi."

"I'm Julie. I'll be thirteen next month."

She sure didn't mind talking to strangers, did she?

"Uh... congratulations?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm SO excited to be a teenager. My mom says I can date boys after I'm thirteen."

Gee. I didn't start dating boys till I was sixteen. Though that was partly my fault, being the freakish girl who talks to walls. But I turned out all right, didn't I?

"So. What's your name?" Julie asked.

"Susannah Simon. Suze for short."

"Nice to meet you, Suze. How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"How cool! So you must be in college!"

"Yeah. I am."

"That's so interesting," breathed Julie. "So is that guy you're sitting with your boyfriend?"

"He is."

"He's cute."

"I think so, too," I said. Talking to this girl isn't that bad. She was a little annoying at first, but I think I'm warming up to her.

"What's his name?"

"Jesse de Silva. He's twenty-three."

I knew she was going to ask his age, so I just decided to add that to his name.

"Why are you guys going to New York?"

"Jesse's taking me there for our three-year anniversary."

"Three years! Wow! Doesn't it ever get boring?"

I thought of all the ghosts we mediated together, and the making-out in-between.

"Nope. It's a new experience every day."

"That must have meant he was twenty and you were like, sixteen when you started going out!"

"Well, yeah."

"That's so much older! Your mom actually let you?"

"Jesse's VERY old-fashioned. You could say he was born in the 1800's by the way he acts."

I had to grin at that. I'm good. I'm SO good.

"I see you waste no time to talk about me."

I looked up to see Jesse's face, grinning playfully at me.

"Not even a moment, Jesse! Oh woe, I cannot bear to part with you for even five minutes!" I brought my hand up to my forehead theater style. Julie was giggling, and Jesse was smiling.

He took my hands in his. "I would never dream of leaving you for that long!" said he in the same passionate voice.

And then he could not hold his laughter in any longer, so we were all bursting in fits of giggles. When it died down, I introduced Jesse to Julie.

Even though he was standing in the small aisle of the plane, he bowed to her, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. "My pleasure, fair Julie."

She was blushing, giggling. Jesse eyes, me and winked. "Don't fall for it, Julie. That's how he reeled me in, and now I'm stuck."

Jesse laughed and released Julie's hand. "May I have my seat, Lady Julie?" asked Jesse.

"Oh yes, of course!" Before Julie climbed out of her seat, she whispered, "I didn't think to take the 1800's comment seriously!"

I laughed. Jesse sat down and Julie sat back in her seat a couple of aisles away. "She's quite smitten with you," I said.

Jesse laughed. "It's such a pity I'm taken."

I rolled my eyes. I started thinking of a song my mother always used to play in our New York apartment, and I had to smile. Without realizing it, I started singing the lyrics.

"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today...I want to be a part of it - New York, New York..."

Jesse looked at me and laughed. "How appropriate."

I just grinned. "That song brings back New York memories galore."

**.:In the Back of the Plane:.**

**(A/N: I tried to write this in Arabic, but WordPerfect won't support it.)**

"We've got to do this _now_!"

"Patience, Fatih. We must do this perfectly."

"Why not now, though? We want to please Allah _now_, Qutb."

"Now now, Ghazi, we shall please him in good time."

"How can you be so calm, Adham?"

"It's just a facade, believe me."

The four Arabic men sat with their feet twitching, sweating bullets.

The plan was to be executed in just ten short minutes. After years of planning, and of postponing, they would finally do it. There was no doubt of that in their minds. They just hoped the people weren't as perceptive as the people in their failing brother's plan.

And that was all they could do. Hope. Hope that the people wouldn't overthrow them, hope nothing would happen that wasn't part of the plan.

And that, really, was their downfall. There were too many gaping holes in their plan.

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**Okay guys, this is the prologue. The rest of this is in the next chapter.**


	2. Let's Roll

**Here's the rest.**

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After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about ten minutes, Qutb, obviously the leader of all of them, nodded at Adham. He got up and pushed open the compartment door above his seat and grabbed a bag out of it. He went up to the bathroom near the cockpit, trying to stay calm and not give anything away. 

Qutb nodded at Fatih and Ghazi, who grabbed the handles of their knives in their pockets.

Qutb got up and walked down the aisle calmly, sitting down in an empty seat right next to the cockpit. Fatih and Ghazi followed, sitting down in the row right behind him. Each was silently praying, more or less ready to face what was next.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Adham was not doing what was normal to do in a bathroom, but was assembling what looked to be a bomb. He took out the pieces of clay and wrapped the wire around it, then strapped it to himself, holding some of the wire in his left hand. He zipped up his coat over it, showing a square bulge. He opened the bathroom door and nodded to Qutb, who nodded to Fatih, who nodded to Ghazi.

Qutb got up from his seat, followed by Fatih and Ghazi. Ghazi stood by Adham, while Fatih followed Qutb into the cockpit. Both men successfully strangled the pilot and co-pilot. Tossing their useless bodies aside, Qutb got into the pilot's seat and clipped a picture of the Independence Hall onto the control wheel, and yawed the plane to the right, changing their course to Philadelphia instead of New York City.

Fatih adjusted the direction finder and watched the primary flight display. Qutb finished the first part of the hijacking by adjusting the navigation controls and cutting off all contact to the plane control center.

"How long do we have, Qutb?" asked Fatih.

"No more than 50 minutes." He was already beginning to sweat, holding onto the control wheel with white knuckles.

**.:Suze's POV:.**

The sudden yaw of the plane jerked everyone to the left, and I was pushed into Jesse because of it.

I heard some screams and I looked up. I saw an Arabic man with a bomb strapped to his chest. How the heck did he get a bomb on this plane with all the extra security? Oh my God, I never thought this would happen again! I looked at Jesse's face, who was staring intently at the bomb, a look of confusion on his face.

"What's wrong, Jesse?"

"I don't think that's a real bomb, Susannah."

"A-are you sure, Jesse?"

"Not completely, but the wires are configured oddly-"

"Hey! No talking back there!"

Jesse lowered his voice. "And he's not giving the wires enough slack-"

"I said no talking!" The guy with the gun was looking pretty restless. Jesse shut up. But the man felt as if he needed to prove his point.

He grabbed the nearest person next to him and shoved a gun at her neck, a crazy look in his eye. Julie had her eyes wrenched closed, biting her lip so hard her lower lip went white. Her mother screamed, and the man, surprised by the sound, pulled the trigger, the bullet lodged into her neck.

Julie went limp, and fell out of the man's grasp, a lump on the floor.

I gasped, not able to wrench my eyes away from the dead girl. Her eyes were still open, a pool of blood forming under her. Her mother screamed again, falling out of her seat and pulling her daughter into her arms, crying hysterically. The man hit the back of the woman's head with the side of his gun, and she fell over her daughter, unconscious.

My face was white, I knew. And Jesse wasn't faring much better either. I had a feeling he thought this was his fault. But it totally wasn't! That crazy man! I could kill him!

If I wasn't so scared, that is. I mean, he just killed an innocent little girl. I'm sure he'll kill everyone of us if he wanted.

The guy with the bomb looked over at the commotion. "Ghazi!" He said some other stuff but it was in Arabic and I didn't understand it.

The guy-Ghazi- responded with some more stuff in Arabic, but I caught the name Adham. At least I knew their names now. Not that that really mattered.

Another man came into the scene. He emerged from the cockpit. They all began con versing in urgent Arabic, but I caught two more names. I was pretty sure the guy who came out of the cockpit was named Fatih, and the one flying this thing was named Qutb.

So there were four.

It was pretty obvious, we were being hijacked. And here I thought this would never happen again. Five years later from the attack and we were becoming careless yet again. Or they were just really smart. I was pretty curious to know how they got a gun in here, but I think that question was going to remain unanswered.

Fatih, Adham, and Ghazi went into the cockpit. For a few precious moments, we sat in silence. Then someone stated the obvious.

"We're being hijacked."

"We have to do something," someone else said.

No dip, genius.

"Who can fly a plane?" asked Jesse.

A man a couple rows in front of us turned to look at Jesse. He looked to be in his early sixties. "I flew fighter planes in the Air Force... but never a commercial liner."

"We'll have to take our chances," said Jesse.

"We need weapons," I said.

Some of the stewardesses said that she could boil some water, and another grabbed some cutlery.

"We could use the beverage cart to ram open the door of the cockpit."

"Let's-"

Ghazi and Adham emerged from the cockpit. They just stood there and watched us.

I heard a guy behind me speaking in low tones. "Yes, we've got four men of Arabic descent, hijacking this plane." He paused for a moment. "No, I don't know where we're heading."

I realized he was having a phone conversation. I just hoped he doesn't get caught.

Jesse looked to me. Wordlessly, he slipped from his seat to the seat behind him. I was in his previous seat in an instant, looking at him with flashing eyes. He lifted a finger to his lips.

He slipped a couple rows back, heading towards the little kitchen the stewardesses were in, busy making and finding weapons.

Then Ghazi glanced our direction. "Hey! No moving!" He strode towards Jesse.

Jesse was stock-still. "I was just going to-"

"No moving!" Ghazi got that crazy look in his eye. He was near me. I realized how far out I was in the aisle and made a move to pull back. He saw me and grabbed me, pulling me up by my neck. This time he had a knife on me. He was probably scolded by one of the others for being so rash in killing.

I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes. Jesse had stood up by now, and was heading towards us, his arms up near his shoulders.

"Now now, don't be so rash," he said.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"I'm not trying to. You don't want to kill her. Tell me, do you have a sister?"

Ghazi nodded.

"Just pretend for a moment that this girl is your sister. You wouldn't want to hurt your sister."

The man was lessening his grip on me just a little. I could feel the knife on my neck, though.

"Do you really want to kill this woman? She's someone's sister, someone's daughter, someone's niece, someone's girlfriend, someone's friend. Why would you want to give so many people so much grief?"

"Because Qutb says we'll have eternal bliss! Allah will-"

Though we never found out what Allah would do, because someone came up from behind and bonked him on the head with his carry-on bag. He fell to the ground head-first, completely conked out. I fell with him, but I scurried away quickly, gingerly touching my neck.

One of the stewardesses took advantage of the confusion and poured boiling water on Adham. He fell to the ground head first as well and was unconscious before he could scream. I saw the welts on his arms form, and winced.

Jesse fell to the ground and snatched me up in his arms. "_Querida_, are you all right?"

I nodded. "I'm fine, Jesse. Really. You were great, making that diversion, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't done that." I looked over at Julie, and shivered, answering my own question silently.

He still had that death grip on me. "I swear, Susannah, if we get out of this alive, I'll..."

He didn't finish his sentence. I don't think he could talk at the moment. He must have been scared witless when he was talking to Ghazi. Though I hadn't heard his voice shake at all.

The man who was to be our pilot, I learned that his name was Patrick, had already slipped into the kitchen, along with two other men.

Jesse was looking towards the kitchen. "I have to help, Susannah."

"I know."

As if he was in a daze, he rose up and walked into the kitchen.

"Suze?"

I turned around and saw Julie. The aura around her was unmistakable. "Suze... can you see me?"

"Yes, I can, Julie."

"Is my mommy dead?"

"No, she's just knocked-out."

"Oh, well that's good. She's pregnant, you know. Not very far in, but she'll start showing soon. We were on our way to New York City for my birthday. School starts next month so we wanted to do something for me in the summer."

"Your mom's pregnant?"

"Yeah. Daddy's ecstatic. So am I. I was so excited I was going to be an older sister."

I felt tears falling down my cheeks. This girl was so full of life. Why did she have to die at such a young age?

"Suze? Are you crying?"

"Yeah." I reached up and wiped up my tears. "Now why are you still here?"

She didn't have to ask questions. She just knew. She was smart like that. "Yeah. Could you tell Jesse that it wasn't his fault?"

"Why don't you tell him that?"

"He can see me too?"

"Yes, he can. And he's very upset about your death, he thinks it was his fault."

"Well, I MUST fix that." Julie went over to Jesse. I could see him in the kitchen, talking to her.

She talked back. Then he was hugging her. She said something to him, and he nodded, kissing her cheek.

Then she shimmered away. And that was that. Jesse looked up at me. I smiled at him. He smiled back.

The others were standing up, all conversing in low tones, looking quite anxious.

They took the beverage cart up the other aisle because this one was, well, littered with bodies.

Jesse came up to me. He offered his hand, and I took it, standing up. "Querida, we're going to try and take this plane by force."

He didn't offer an explanation. I didn't need one.

"I'm helping."

"No, you aren't, Querida. I can't let you."

I know. I was a disgrace to women everywhere...

"Why not?" I whined.

See. I'm ruthless.

"Because I can't lose you," said Jesse fiercely. "Seeing you in the clutches of that man, I didn't know if I was ever going to hold you again."

"Well then think of what I must feel, Jesse! You disappearing into the cockpit! I won't know WHAT the hell's going on in there!"

Jesse sighed. "All right Susannah. If you must come."

"I must." I had a plan, too.

He hadn't let go of me yet. I knew the other men were waiting for him.

If anything, he held me tighter. He smoothed my hair. "I love you," he whispered into my ear.

He didn't say that phrase much, let me tell you. I remember one day when I got so fed up with him never telling me he loved me that I asked him. Then he told me that in his time, saying that you loved someone meant marriage.

He only told me he loved me once before. And that was when we were getting kinda hot n' heavy.

Then he apologized so profusely for it that I thought he hadn't meant it.

But I knew he meant this. I knew it.

And despite the awful circumstances we were in, I smiled. "I love you too, Jesse."

He kissed me then, still unwilling to let me go.

About fifteen seconds later, though, he let me go, and I followed him to the beverage cart and the other men. Their eyebrows were raised at him, but Jesse sighed, waving them off.

I followed Jesse, ready for my part in this. I was SO ready for it.

But that didn't mean I wasn't scared. I was. I totally was.

Jesse and the other guys rammed the beverage cart into the door at least three times. I hung back with Patrick.

Once the door was successfully open, I rushed through the door before Jesse could stop me, and I grabbed two handfuls of shirt, shut my eyes tight, and visualized Shadowland.

The two men looked confused. They were just in the cockpit, and now they were somewhere else. I couldn't blame them.

I was sure Jesse was freaking out. I mean, I knew that I had just fallen into a coma down there, and it must be causing a lot of confusion, but hopefully Patrick had control of the plane in time. It's not like I could really warn them. Jesse would have never let me do it. I knew it for certain.

But what's a few brain cells when there's a hijacked plane with people's lives hanging in the balance?

Yeah. You'd do exactly what I did.

Though I'm sure Jesse won't agree.

"What is this place?" asked the pilot.

"The great beyond, dude. Take a look behind one of those doors. I'm sure you'll find your precious Allah behind one of them."

"Are you saying that we're dead?" asked the other.

"As good as," was my witty comeback.

"You foolish girl! How could you!" The pilot lunged at me, beginning to strangle me. I didn't allow myself precious time to panic. I kneed him hard in the groin, then shifted before the other one could take his turn on trying to hurt me.

I opened my eyes to find myself in Jesse's lap. I gingerly reached up to touch my neck. No bruise. Just like it should be.

"Susannah, you idiot!" Jesse pulled me into yet another bone-crushing hug.

Which was kinda oxymorinic, if you think about it. I mean, you generally don't go around calling people idiots when you're passionately embracing them, do you?

I think not.

"They're in Shadowland, now. Everything's fine," I said, glancing in Patrick's direction, watching him pilot the plane. Successfully, if I might add.

"How could you scare me like that! I thought they had hurt you!"

"Um, no. Well, the pilot tried to strangle me in Shadowland, but-"

"Strangle you? Oh _Querida_!" He pulled me tighter into his chest. If that were even possible.

"Jesse, I'm fine. Jeez. That was probably the easiest way to rid of them."

"Not to me, Susannah."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that. But there would be precious seconds when you were overpowering them that could mean life or death, you know that. You've gotta sacrifice yourself for the sake of others sometimes, you know that."

"Yes, I know. But... when I saw you fall to the floor, and the others, too, I completely freaked out. I was a mess. I was completely panicking."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when I was up there."

"And then I realized it, Susannah." He didn't speak for a few moments. Like he was... I dunno. Trying to say something thought-provoking? **(A/N: Que cheesy music/reading:D) **"That I can't live without you. Marry me."

It goes without saying that I said yes, of course. And in the French kind of way.

Come on, you'd do the same, too. There's only so much a girl can handle, you know? Sometimes you've gotta be cliched. It's like, a given, or something.

We had a somewhat rocky landing in the countryside of western Pennsylvania. Luckily, there was someone in the house nearby who phoned the local emergency dispatcher to help out the injured(which included, among Julie's mother, both Ghazi and Adham), and gave us something to drink and let us use their phone to call our loved ones.

The conversation to Mom went like this:

**Mom:** Susie, honey? Is that you?

**Me:** Yeah, it's me, Mom.

**Mom:**_(all teary)_ I thought you were dead!

**Me:** Well, I'm not. We overthrew the hijackers before it was too late.

**Mom:** Oh honey, please come back home!

**Me:** I was planning on it.

**Andy:** _(in the background) _Is that Suze?

**Mom:** _(talking to Andy)_ Yes, she's alive! They overthrew the hijackers!

**David:** _(in the background)_ Can I talk to her?

**Mom:** I'll put it on the speaker phone

**David:** Suze! How'd you do it?

**Me:** (explained to them the whole thing, except for the Shadowland thing, I just told them that they were incapacitated and thrown out of their seats)

Brad and Jake, who had joined the conversation when I began explaining, thought the whole thing was pretty cool.

Though I was pretty much crying the whole time I explained Julie's death, Jesse held my hand the entire time.

**Me:** Well, others need to speak with their families.

**Mom: **All right, honey! Just... ride the train home, okay? Don't you worry about the charge, I'll take care of it.

**Me:** Okay Mom.

I was about to hang up, but then I decided to say one more thing.

**Me:** Oh yeah, Jesse and I are engaged.

Then I hung up before I could hear the reactions.

The media was all over us for the next couple of months. We met the president and stuff, and were given all these donations by people, whether we wanted them or not.

But that was how I got engaged.

Interesting story to tell the kids, eh?

When we have them, of course. But first we have to get married. Jesse'd never do THAT out of wedlock. Makes it a lot more special to me, though. I have to hand it to him.

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**Okay, please review. I know this is a little different, but I want to know if it;s a good different, or a bad different. It's all in your hands! Oh, the pressure! Thanks for reading.**

**Lady Epur**


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